F1's GP promoters miss their chance

A meeting of Formula 1 race promoters in Spain was a golden opportunity to start tackling pressing issues like outrageous ticket prices, but the chance was missed, reveals DIETER RENCKEN

One of the features of the Spanish Grand Prix weekend was the number of race promoters swanning about the place, with representatives from 17 of 2014's 19 grands prix present at the Catalunya circuit.

It seems Ronald J Walker, Australian Grand Prix promoter and long-standing Bernie Ecclestone-ite, called the first meeting of the Formula One Promoters' Association - an organisation founded two years ago which would, in the words of a disciple, "forever change F1's political landscape" - explaining the plethora of promoters mainly hanging about Red Bull's Energy Station.